Question

Suppose I have two scripts, printargs.sh:

#!/bin/bash

echo 1=$1
echo 2=$2
echo 3=$3

and passargs.sh:

#!/bin/bash

arg1="-e \"hello there\""
./printargs.sh $arg1

How do I modify passargs.sh to pass two arguments, -e and hello there, to printargs.sh? i.e. I would like printargs.sh to print

1=-e
2=hello there
3=

I feel like this question has plagued me for years! The only way I can get it is by creating two variables. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The answer has been around for years.

args=(-e 'hello there')
./printargs.sh "${args[@]}"